Falling Sparks
by fallen for your eyes
Summary: "Nell glances up, and her eyes meet a pair of familiar ones behind a pair of glasses, and suddenly, Nell is 15 again, and she's in Paris about to have her first kiss with a beautiful boy from Oklahoma." Fate keeps throwing Nell and Eric together only to drag them apart. AU.


It starts with spin the bottle. Which, looking back, Nell realizes is a terrible way to meet someone, but she's in Paris with her high school travel club. Nate dragged her to the party, claiming they couldn't not go to a party in Paris, especially when it was a party for not only their trip, but other high school trips too.

"If you don't, Nell, I won't go to the top of the Eiffel Tower with you tomorrow." Nates says. He has his arm around her shoulder, as best as he can with their height difference.

"You already used that to get me to this party in the first place Nate." Nell tries to shrug him off but he just pulls her closer.

"We're playing spin the bottle."

"If you want to kiss me so bad, why didn't you just say so."

He gives her an exasperated look and continues to drag her toward the circle.

"I'm not playing! And you have no one else to go to the top with so it's an empty threat." She grabs herself a beer from the table, and passes one to Nate.

"Au Contraire, mon Cherrie! Jules asked me, but I told her I already promised my idiot best friend. But Jules is in the room next to you, I could easily—"

Nell punches his gut and he doubles over. "Fine. I hate you."

Nate smiles and grabs her shoulders moving them to the other room where the game is happening. There's so many people, Nell almost feels lost, but also, her chances of actually having to kiss a random stranger are low. So she relaxes.

She cheers when Nate has to kiss a French girl, laughs when said French girl takes her best friends hand and leaves the room, even smiles when someone from her school has to kiss somebody else.

And she's having fun, without Nate, with people she's never met before until the bottle lands on her. Her eyes trail up, looking for the person she has to kiss.

Her heart starts pounding so loudly she's certain everyone can hear it. Nate is gone, she is alone, and she has to kiss a stranger. She doesn't even know who the stranger is.

"Hey." A soft voice from across the circle says. A boy, roughly her age with glasses and ridiculously colored shorts, leans forward.

He's attractive, she thinks. She's not sure whether that is going to make it harder or easier, but he's making his way across the circle to her, and oddly, it seems like it's quiet. No one's cheering, and if they are laughing or commenting, she can't hear it.

"Hey." She whispers back, when he's right in front of her. "So you're not French?" she jokes, trying to calm herself down. She's never done this before. She's not sure how it's supposed to go.

"What?" He asks. They are whispering, and even though Nell knows they are in a room with tons of people watching them, she feels like they are alone.

"You know, every one dreams of getting French kissed by an actual French person. I was seeing what my chances were."

He laughs, and moves centimeters closer to her. "Nope, sorry. I'm from Oklahoma."

She can't help the giggle that erupts from her mouth. He smiles at her, and it makes her relax just enough so when his lips touch hers, she doesn't jump.

His hand come up to cup her face, and Nell thinks, for her first actual kiss, it isn't too bad. He pulls away, and he smiles at her again, and her heart thumps just a little faster.

Now she can hear the cheering and the laughing. But she's not paying attention.

"I'm-" He starts to say, but someone claps his back.

"Beale, let's go!"

He turns back to her for a split second, and then he's gone, lost to the crowd and the house and to Nell.

Her heart is still pounding off beat, and she needs to find Nate, because she needs to talk to someone or go home, or do anything else, because she just kissed a beautiful boy from Oklahoma, and she kind of wants to do it again.

xXx

She almost forgets about the beautiful nameless boy in Paris by the time she gets to college. She's no longer in the middle of nowhere, and she's no longer in Paris, but she's in California. She blames Nate mostly, because everything is almost Nate's fault, but begging her to choose Stanford, because it was the best school she got into, and because he was in California and they could be together on the weekends was probably the best thing he had ever done for her.

She loves California and college and everything about it. She loves being close enough to Nate so they can hang out again, and he can force her to do things outside her comfort zone, because that's the type of friend he is.

"Get in the car Nell." Nate says. He's slowly rolling next to her, forcing her to look at him.

"I'm not getting in the car. I don't even like reptiles Nate." She fires back, looking for somewhere where she can escape him and his stupid car.

"But I have free tickets. Free tickets Nell! It's Saturday, I'm already here, let's go."

She ignores him for another minute, until he sighs, and parks the car. "Are you mad at me?" He asks, walking backwards so he can stare her down.

"You would know if I was mad at you Mr. I-am-working-on-my-PhD-in-psychology." She swats his hands away as he moves toward her, and she tries to side step him, but his legs are too long.

"Then why don't you want to come! We haven't seen each other in nearly a month and a half. I miss you!"

Nell rolls her eyes at him. She knows she doesn't want to go with him, because she met a guy at a party the night before, and he said he would call her. And she wants him to call, because she hasn't gone on a date with anyone in a really long time, but she knows, if she goes to reptile exhibition with Nate, she'll miss it.

"Fine! But you're buying me dinner." She gets into his car and ignores for about 15 minutes until she can't.

Somehow, Nell finds herself enjoying the stupid exhibition, and enjoying her time with Nate. About an hour in, she stuffs her phone into the darkest corner of her bag, and just lets herself stare at the snakes and the frogs and all the other creatures.

"I'm going to grab us some food." Nate says. "I'll be right back."

And then she's alone, in the convention center, surrounded by strangers and reptiles, and it isn't the worst thing in the world.

She turns to walk toward one of the stands, when someone literally runs into her, so hard they almost knock her over.

"Woah, sorry. Are you okay?" Someone's hands settle on her arms to steady her. Nell glances up, and her eyes meet a pair of familiar ones behind a pair of glasses, and suddenly, Nell is 15 again, and she's in Paris about to have her first kiss with a beautiful boy from Oklahoma.

But she's in California, not Paris, and she's no longer in high school, but the guy stops and stares at her, his left hand is still clasped on her elbow.

Six years had done him well. He grew into himself a bit more, and he is still wearing ridiculous shorts, and his lips still look incredibly kissable, and Nell can't find the words she needs to answer him.

"Do I know you?" He asks, taking a step closer to her. Nell opens her mouth to answer.

"Eric, come on!" A pretty blonde girl emerges from the crowd and takes his arm, and before Nell can answer him, he looks away from her and then he's gone, disappearing into the crowd for the second time.

It's been 6 years, but her heart is pounding like she's in high school on a trip with her travel club, and she blames Nate. Nate was the reason she kissed the stranger in the first place, he was the reason she ran into him again today, and if he wasn't her best friend she would hate him.

"Nell! They had those curly fries from home." The devil himself falls into her space and he holds out a box of tornado fries, and she wants to hate him, but she can't. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

She laughs and takes the box from him, before moving to the next stand. "Something like that."

xXx

The bar is loud, and it's crowded, and it's totally not her scene, but Nate is getting a girlfriend, and Nell thinks it's good to be there for him when he does.

He once again disappears on her, following the girl, Rose, Nell thinks her name is, closer to the front of the stage where the local band will be playing soon.

And Nell's okay with it. She has a beer and a seat at the bar, and she had just finished a major project for one of her last graduate classes. And she likes Rose. Which is not something she can say for the rest of the almost girlfriends Nate has had over the years.

The bar is crowded with people, but she can still see Nate's head in the crowd, and the past two bands had been decent, so she's content. Nell can people watch and drink her favorite beer and forget about that fact that she hasn't applied to any jobs yet, even if it's only for the night.

"I have an awkward favor to ask." A voice behind her disturbs her from her thoughts. She swivels in the bar chair and nearly collides into the guy's chest.

She's really not in the mood to get hit on tonight, and she's ready to tear this guy a new one, until she sees his eyes.

"You've got to be kidding me."

The beautiful boy from Oklahoma stands in front of her, looking even better than he did two years ago. She can't remember either of the names his friends and possible girlfriend had called him, but she remembers his eyes.

He stops, tilting his head to the side and licks his lips. "Paris?"

Her heart nearly stops in her chest, because apparently he remembers her too.

"Yeah. Oklahoma, right?" She asks, almost cursing herself for having such a fantastic memory.

"Wow, yeah. What are the odds?" The guy leans closer to her on the bar, and she has to force herself to not think how he was possibly the best kiss she has had in 23 years of life.

If she wasn't on her 3rd beer she might be able to actually calculate the actual odds, but since she is she doesn't.

"What's the incredibly awkward favor?" She leans closer to him.

He glances around the bar, and spots someone, moving even closer to her as he does. "My ex is here. With her new boyfriend, and it's really petty, but I was wondering if you could pretend to be my girlfriend, for like five minutes. Because she's going to come over and say hi."

Nell ignores the way her heart thumps loudly in her chest and nods, allowing him to slip an arm over her shoulder and whisper into her ear.

"I'm Eric by the way." His lips almost touch her ear, and she tries to stop the blush that she knows is seconds away from attacking her cheeks.

"Nell." She's going to say more, but he squeezes her arm, and Nell knows the ex is coming closer, so she does the only thing her stupid brain tells her too.

She kisses him. It takes him by surprise at first, but then his lips slide against hers, and it's even better than their first kiss, because now she knows his name, and their older and wiser and not playing spin the bottle.

Her arms slide down his chest over his shirt, and he pulls her lower lip into his mouth, and Nell is pretty sure she is about to die.

This guy, this stranger is giving her the best kiss of her entire life, she doesn't even know his last name. She pulls back first, and the sound from the bar slowly filters its way back into her head, and she's stunned.

"I- uh" Eric tries to say something, but he can't and Nell feels quite proud of herself.

"Eric?" the pretty blonde from the reptile exhibition walks up to them, and there's small talk that Nell isn't really paying attention to. Eric's hand slips into hers, and it's strikes her that it just feels right, and she thinks she really wants to get to know this guy who had given her the best two kisses she's ever had.

"So, you know, since fate has thrown us together so many time, I was, maybe, you know, wondering if-"

"I could give you my number?" Nell finishes his sentence, and he looks at her like she's brilliant, and something warm settles over her entire body.

"Yes. Yeah, your number would be great." He smiles at her, and holds out his hand as she produces a sharpie from her bag.

She gets about halfway through her number when a hand lands on her arm, and tugs.

"Nell, we have to go." Rose is almost pulling her out of her seat, not giving her a chance to say goodbye or finish writing her number.

"Rose, what's going on?" She tries to stop, to get Rose to look at her, to turn back to Eric, but Rose isn't stopping, and she can't even see her spot at the bar anymore.

"Nate. Someone punched him because he said Nate was too tall to stand in the front, and Nate wouldn't fight back, so they punched him again, and the bouncers threw them out, and I think they broke Nate's nose, we need to go!" Rose yanks her again, and Nell stops looking back because it's a lost cause.

Nate is hurt. Rose is scared. Eric has half a phone number on his hand, and Nell thinks her heart might break.

Maybe, she tries to tell herself, it just wasn't meant to be.

xXx

If Nell couldn't blame everything of Nate, she could blame the rest of it on Marty Deeks. Her phone buzzes, waking her up at the ungodly hour of 2am. She reaches for it, knocking it to the floor in the process, before she can read it.

 _I need my wingman_. The text is from an unknown number, and she's ready to kill whoever the person is.

 _It's 2 in the morning. Who is this?_

 _Marty Deeks. Come on Nell, we hung out like last year. You wished me a happy birthday three months ago._

Nell groans and sits up. She knew Deeks through the stupid college parties Nate used to drag her too to get her out of her room. She also knew she lost his number when her phone took an unfortunate trip in the bath tub, and she could have found it again, but she didn't think it was necessary.

 _It's two in the morning._ She tells him again, hoping he'll realize she wants to sleep, but from what she remembers, she knows he won't.

She's two seconds from falling asleep again when her phone buzzes again, this time accompanied with her ring tone.

"Hello?"

"Nell! Perfect, glad I caught you. Are you up for a party?" He sounds way to energetic for someone at 2 in the morning, and she wants to hit him.

"It's the crack of dawn."

"Yes, but I need my wingman. And the party is today. At 6. PM. I wanted to give you a good heads up."

"Deeks."

"Nell. Come on. We haven't partied in years, and it's at the best club in Hollywood, and I really like this girl. I'll buy you dinner for like the rest of forever."

Nell sighs and falls back onto her bed. "Yeah fine. Text me the details. I swear, Deeks you owe me."

She hangs up on him before he can answer her, and she switches her phone to silent. She said yes because it's a Saturday, and she hasn't been out in forever, and she sort of hates her job in the It department of some useless company, and Deeks knows how to make her laugh.

Also, Nate is gone on some research project, so she's lonely, because LA is a lot different from college, and she's never been spectacular at making friends.

Deeks sweeps her into a bear hug when she finds him outside the club, lifting her off the ground and spinning her.

"It's been way too long Nellster." He puts her back down on the ground, and slings an arm over her shoulder.

"You only want me here to help you with a girl." She teases, but he squeezes her shoulder as they waltz through the front door of the club.

"Not true." He says.

"Really?"

He orders them drinks from the bar and passes it to her. "Nate texted me. Asked me to check up on you."

She elbows him in the ribs and he grins at her. "And I've missed you, shorty. You also know when a girl likes me or not. So I need your special skills."

Nell concedes and pushes herself up on a chair. "So, what's her name?"

Deeks was never shy about the girls he liked while they were in college, so when he ducks his head and doesn't look at her, Nell knows this one is different.

"Kensi." A small smile settles on his face at the name, and Nell feels oddly proud of the Deeks.

"And…"

"So how've you been?" Deeks says, instead of answering, and Nell lets him have it, because it's easier. She tells him about life and her job and Nate. He tells her about how he's going to join the LAPD in a few months, so he can stop the crime before it happens, and about his dog Monty, and he lets slip that he met Kensi through a case and then Nell gets him talking about her right up until Kensi walks up to them herself.

The other woman's eyes light up the second she sees Deeks, and Nell could probably walk away that moment and it neither of them would notice.

"Kensi, this is Nell. We went to college together." Deeks says, and Nell watches Kensi's eyes fall onto her, and she tenses up, just slightly, just enough for Nell to notice. Kensi likes Deeks. Nell just needs to pass the information on. Then her job is done.

"Yeah, he was friend of my boyfriends, so it was more like default friends. He dragged me out tonight because my boyfriend is currently on the other side of the country." Nell takes a sip of her drink, and Kensi relaxes, her arm leaning just against Deeks'. Nell smiles despite herself and taps Deeks on the arm, their signal that his feelings were reciprocated.

It takes all of two seconds for Nell to be out of the conversation. She sips on her drink and flicks through her phone, giving herself enough time to leave without it being awkward.

"Kens! You can't disappear on me and then not answer – oh, we meet again."

Nell glances up from her phone and nearly chokes on her drink. Eric, the best kisser on the face of the planet, is standing in front of her, again, smirking at her, like they do this all the time.

"Honestly we really have to stop meeting like this." She says, fully turning to him. Before she can say anything else, he grabs her phone out of her hands and types in his number.

"Last time we got cut off." He hands her phone back, and she glances at the contact. She can't help but smile.

"Did you have a hard time choosing between Paris and Oklahoma?" She realizes she's leaning closer to him than she should a second too late.

"Nope. Oklahoma was the obvious choice. It's what you remembered about me."

She realizes he's leaning into her as well, and that if they keep going, they are going to kiss again. Nell also realizes, she wouldn't mind."

"Eric! There you are." Kensi says, just as Nell closes her eyes. She doesn't know if she's thankful or not.

"Yes, I found you." He says, pointedly. "You left me." Eric turns to Kensi, but his hand skims across Nell's arm, and she simultaneously wants to die and to pull him into the bathroom.

Kensi's eyes dance between the space between Eric and Nell and her eyes light up again. "Do you guys know each other?"

Eric glances at Nell, looking for an answer but she shrugs.

"You could say that."

xXx

In the end, she really has no one to blame but herself. It takes her two weeks to text him back. Another three weeks to quit her job. And another two after that for her to finally agree to go out with him again.

She wants to blame Nate, because he's not here and can't solve her problems for her, but it's not true. She wants to blame her job for making her irritable, and she wants to blame the world for giving her the flu, but honestly, she had so many chances to make everything right, and now, she's messing it up.

"I'm sorry, I'm not good with new people." She says. She had been fidgeting the entire night, and finishing is sentences and overall making it the worst first date in the entire world.

But if she's being honest, he doesn't look much better. He's wearing pants, and he looks uncomfortable, and he's not talking much anymore, and she wants to die.

"Me neither." He tugs at his tie, and glances around for the waiter again.

That's when she realizes what's wrong. This isn't them. The place is too fancy, and the conversation is too forced. They had been texting for weeks and it was good, hell it was better than good. But they were trying to be people who they weren't.

"Hey," She reaches across the table for his hand. It makes her think of when she was just a 15-year-old girl in Paris, playing spin the bottle for the first time.

"Hey," He says back, and the small, barely there smile on his face makes her think he's remembering it to.

"Let's get out of here."

Eric smiles at her, and grabs her hand, and they run out, leaving a couple of bills on the table, before breaking into the California air.

"We can go to my place, if you want. I have Mario cart." She offers, and the next thing she knows, his lips are crashing onto hers.

This is what she had been waiting for. Ever since she saw him at the club, and they started texting. She had been thinking about the entire night, and the fact that he still wants to kiss her after the disaster inside makes her think the night could be saved.

"I'll order us a pizza." He says, pulling back from her. His hands are still on her waist, and he's still close enough for her to count his eye lashes.

"We can change into pajamas."

He smiles at her again before attacking her lips, and its more teeth than anything, but it's still one of the best kisses she's ever had. His arms tighten around her waist and he's lifting her off the ground slightly, and she never ever wants to stop kissing him ever.

"You've ruined all women for me since the first moment I kissed you." He says, letting her drop back to the ground before opening the car door for her.

"That's my ultimate goal in life." She grabs his hand once he gets back into the car. "You still want to hang out with me, even after this shit show of a date?"

He stops the car at the light, and he's doused in red, and Nell's heart thumps like the first time she saw him.

"That wasn't us back there." He brings her hand up to his lips, and kisses her knuckles. "But Mario cat, pizza, and pajamas, Nell, I want to hang out with you forever."

It starts with spin the bottle. Which, looking back, Nell realizes is a terrible way to meet someone, but she's 25, living in LA, sitting in a car with a beautiful boy from Oklahoma who likes her just the way she is. And honestly, if she has to place the blame on a ten-year-old game of spin the bottle, she's not going to complain.


End file.
